


Ghosts of Wistful Thought

by rhodrymavelyne



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-17 05:35:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28719735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhodrymavelyne/pseuds/rhodrymavelyne
Summary: Hannibal Lecter is coming to realize Bedelia’s words are true. Yes, he is drawing all of them to him, but particularly Will Graham and Jack Crawford.
Relationships: Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter
Kudos: 6





	Ghosts of Wistful Thought

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place during Secondo. I don’t own Hannibal but for over a year it has owned me.

Entropy was coming quicker and with it the impatience to accomplish something, to do something artistic with his hands or even to seize the intiative by bringing death. 

Bedelia’s words rang in his mind. “You are drawing them to you. All of them.”

Perhaps. Perhaps everyone scarred or with a grudge against Hannibal Lecter were scheming, plotting, thinking of ways to give him a scar of his own or worse. 

For a moment Hannibal visualized arranging the pieces of Solignato’s body in an Iron Maiden, placing it in the Palazzo Capone, seeing if anyone would see it, smell it, sense it. 

He imagined Will, standing amidst the artifacts of torture, regarding him with that grave, pensive face which neither approved nor condoned the methods Hannibal used to amuse himself, yet felt Hannibal’s own amusement as keenly as if these instruments were being applied to him. 

“I miss you,” Hannibal said to the dream of Will. “I want you back, you and Jack. Where are you?” 

Will closed his eyes and Hannibal almost saw the golden pendulum swining, erasing Will, transporting him to a vision, a vision of the past? Or was it the present?

Jack Crawford stood in the Norman Chapel, gazing at one of the tiny votive flames with a rapt concentation, a hint of a calm acceptance mingled with the usual quietness Jack could summon and unnerve those around him with. This time Jack Crawford wasn’t trying to unnerve anyone. 

“Are you a believer, Signore Crawford?” Hannibal had heard that voice before in that very chapel along with other places. 

“Aren’t we all?” Jack said, making Hannibal wonder what he meant by that. Hannibal hadn’t realized Jack accepted that particular idea, even that particular question with regards to faith. Or perhaps he’d hidden this part of himself. 

Perhaps Jack was thinking of Will. Perhaps what had happened to Will, Jack, and Hannibal as well had changed him. 

The pendulum swung again, erasing the Norman Chapel. It brought him to a familar spot, a place of darkness and screams even if it was silent now. Of gravestones where a name was all was left of what once made this place precious. 

No, not just a name. A figure, a living man walked amongst the tombstones. Will Graham’s face was luminous and white against the darkness of hair, coat, and the night itself. Fireflies provided illumination, gathering around Will, creating a halo around his coat and head. Never had he looked more like a saint. Never had he looked more damned in the reflection of the darkest corner of Hannibal’s memory palace. 

The hungry ache Hannibal Lecter once felt, walking into an empty waiting room to find no Will Graham returned a hundredfold as the pendulum swung, erasing Will, erasing the site of his nightmares. 

How maddening it was to wait. It was getting more maddening all the time.

“Find me,” he murmured to the ghosts of his past, his former friends and mortal enemies, yet closer to his heart than perhaps anyone was now. “Find me soon.”

**Author's Note:**

> The lines “Are you a believer, Signore Crawford?” and “Aren’t we all?” are from Secondo, dialogue between Rinaldo Pazzi and Jack Crawford in the Norman Chapel. The lines “You’re drawing them to you. All of them” is from Secondo. The idea of Solignato and the Iron Maiden comes from something Don Mancini said he wanted to do in the Dolce commentary. Yes, I agree it was distracting and didn't belong there. At the same time, I keep thinking about how interesting it might be to use it elsewhere. :)


End file.
